DO you remember the first time? The leathered sneer of Liam Gallagher that only a smack in the gob from his brother could silence, and his songwritin genius, and the swagger of their band ('The Sex Beatles' is how a magazine called The Face heralded them) and their early records like 'Supersonic' and 'Live Forever' - and quite possibly even 'Digsy's Dinner' - that announced the aspirations of an era with such a rip roaring snort that a young Prime Minister wooed them.

Shortly into the Blair presidency, Noel found himself at number 10 asking Tony how he managed to stay up through the election night. 'Probably not the same means as you' the PM quipped, and that was 1997 all over.

Little is the same as it was back then, for all parties concerned, but this is where Oasis start to mend some broken promises. It feels like a lifetime since an album from the Gallaghers justified the hype spun on its behalf, but this is SO good it makes you want to pour not one but TWO glasses of Jack Daniels over your head.

Not so with that album that appeared three weeks after that Downing St party, Be Here Now, which was all bombast, or the successive dissapointments of Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants and Heathen Chemistry (bonus points if you can remember more than three song titles from that 2002 system); or the desultory showing at Glastonbury last summer; or the performance on I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here of Liam's sister-in-law, Natalie Appleton. These could be seen as more than failures of will of imagination - rather than aspects of cultural betrayal.

So a touch of cynicism seems quite in order when it comes to Don't Believe The Truth. Perhaps the band have come to a realisation of why some people feel like throwing crockery - Noel strikes a contrite note when he says 'Someone said to me that my songs sound like b-sides from '94. I Take that as a compliment.' What's more, when once he ran the band as an autocracy - booting out anyone who didn't toe the party line - these days he's started to listen, to share the responsibility. So it is that he's only written 5 of the 11. Bassist Andy Bell contributes 2, second guitarist Gem 1, and Liam chips in with 3.

Lets not get carried away, but two of those last are in the Little James category. One good Liam song immediately lifts this album above the status of its two immediate predecessors, and everything else reaches a new target in quality control.

Noel is right to seize on that comparison with the band's early output, because the most helful way to think of Don't Believe The Truth is to ponder what's not there; there aren't any of those coked-up guitar workouts, for instance, when the songs long outstayed their welcome. In fact this is an album that doesn't sound at all druggy, but alive to the possibilities. the bluster, the straining for effect, the attempt to stand up to the grandiose reputation of their own making - all these are absent. Indeed, for the last few years, oasis have been trying to emulate the sound of old Oasis, rather than ripping of their peers, which is what they once did, like politicians pinching rival policies. After taking their time with this record - its release was rumoured last year - that's all changed now.

So first single 'Lyla' appropriates a riff from The 'Stones 'Street Fighting Man' before stumbling into the bar room territory of The Faces; 'Mucky Fingers' is a one chord homage to The Velvet Underground and 'The Importance Of Being Idle' is very Kinks, which at least makes a change from The Beatles; while the way in which 'Part Of The Queue' borrows shamelessly from 'Golden Brown' completes a process akin to Triangulation; where you feel as if you're getting the best of all possible worlds on offer.

These songs on Noel's apart, Gem's 'A Bell Will Ring' is otherwise this weeks pick, but from And Bell's slow burning opener 'Turn Up The Sun' onwards, you're reminded of what true charisma means, and your heart skips a beat, as it flares into the line 'I carry madness, everywhere I geeeeeeaaaoooo' - no prizes for guessing it isn't stand in drummer Zak Starkey fronting up the microphone.

We have all made mistakes. So just as Noel would have seemed to have taken a long hard look at the band, we might ask ourselves some questions. Is swapping Pete Doherty and Kate Moss and crack for Liam and Patsy and the naive optimism of 1997 all we have done?

Don't Believe The Truth isn't a novel - or novelty - record but it makes you care about Oasis again, and it makes you believe they can matter again. So our bond with them is renewed.

Score - 5/5

Stand out tracks:
Turn Up The Sun
Mucky Fingers
A Bell Will Ring
Let There Be Love